Booking Through Thursday #3

This week's prompt: Is there a book that you wish you could “unread”? One that  you disliked so thoroughly you wish you could just forget that you ever read it?

Interesting question. I can't think of a specific book that I have wanted to unread. It seems to me that the only book that is worth or deserves "unreading" is one that is not remembered, or has failed to leave an impression. A book that has wasted your time. 

Or perhaps the desire to unread a book stems from a wish to forget something traumatic or emotional that a book has raised in the reader. But in this instance it is clear that the book has made an impression, that it had a certain impact on the reader, which is, after all, what an author sets out to do. Despite the discomfort the content may have caused, we sometimes learn the most from these type of books. 

For a book to be published, then someone at least thinks there is merit in the story or the writing or both. A high school teacher once challenged us that if we didn't appreciate a book, chances were we hadn't understood it. Not sure about pulp fiction, but I do believe this holds true of literature. A failure on our part to fully appreciate the value of a literary work shouldn't, and fortunately can't, condemn that work to be "unread".